The Northern Han Dynasty was established slightly younger than the Great Zhou Dynasty. The Liu family proclaimed themselves emperors in Jinyang only after Guo Wei marched into Tokyo. However, the city of Jinyang is much older, including this complex of buildings that serves as the imperial palace. None of them were built by the Northern Han Dynasty. They had no money, and all their national strength was used on the military.
The palace had old and mottled walls, and even the paving stones on the ground were broken. They had been repaired by piecing together some leftover stones, and the whole house had a gray and black color scheme.
Only some silk fabrics added some color, and the clothes of the king Liu Jun were more decent. Liu Jun walked around in the warm room, and the ministers of the Ministry of Works, Guo Yuan, generals, Yang Ye, Feng Jinke and others stood outside the door with their backs bent. They could not look around or look at Liu Jun, but could only see the black figure swaying on the broken brick floor, the shadow's hands sometimes behind his back and sometimes rubbing in front of him.
The Emperor of Zhou personally led the army to fight against Liu Jun, feeling terrified that this year the Zhou Dynasty was going to make a serious move at a high price. The ministers, discussing the current situation of the Zhou Dynasty, also made the same judgment, believing that the Northern Han Kingdom should have become the main target of the Zhou Dynasty.
Liu Jun suddenly felt a little regretful at this moment. He regretted that he did not go all out to deal with the turbulent Zhou Dynasty when the two Li brothers rebelled. Maybe he might not have succeeded at that time, but at least he finally realized today that in a world where the weak are the prey of the strong, the only way to protect oneself is to destroy the enemy. People are like this. No matter how many times others tell you the truth, it is useless if you don't understand it.
He didn't want to make progress before because he had neither confidence nor motivation. After the Battle of Gaoping, Chai Rong of Zhou led his troops to besiege Jinyang for more than a month. Liu Jun personally felt that it was difficult to defeat the Zhou army; plus he had no biological son, so he just wanted to protect himself. But now he found that protecting himself was not easy.
At this time, he walked out of the door and said: The Han army cannot retreat without a fight. We must send a large army to fight the Zhou army and try to repel the invaders outside Jinyang.
Guo Yuan bowed and said: The enemy troops are coming in full force, and I'm afraid our troops are insufficient.
Liu Jun said solemnly: Since ancient times, it is not necessarily the one with more people on the battlefield who will win. Otherwise, the winner will be determined by the number of people. Why bother fighting
After hearing this, several ministers were unable to answer.
Liu Jun immediately ordered Yang Ye to be the commander-in-chief and Feng Jinke to be the deputy commander-in-chief, and sent a military supervisor to mobilize the elite troops of the Imperial Guard to march south to resist the enemy.
Yang Ye followed the order and walked out of the palace. He could not help but stop on the platform to look at the surrounding scenery. What caught his eye was the scene of an ancient city. The sky was blue, but the ground was earthy and yellow. The tall city towers and the mountains below were in harmony. At this time, Jinyang was not in the urban area of Taiyuan. It was south of Jinyang Lake in the south of Taiyuan, and backed by mountains on the west side.
This is Longcheng, because after the fall of the Tang Dynasty, many emperors made their fortunes here. The prosperity of this city cannot be compared with the big cities in the Central Plains, but in Yang Ye's opinion, it is also a densely populated city. Compared with Linzhou where he was born, it is indeed a vast place where he can display his talents.
Yang Ye's thoughts seemed to return to his hometown Linzhou, a small border town near the Great Wall. There were yellow gullies and yellow sand everywhere, and the surrounding population was sparse. He was born in a good family, his father was the governor of Linzhou, but he wanted to leave that place since he was a child, looking forward to a bigger world. Dragon City Jinyang was once the place of his dreams, and he went to Jinyang to join the Lord of Northern Han when he was young; his outstanding military exploits allowed him to gain a foothold in Jinyang and win the trust of the Emperor of Northern Han.
Yang Ye calmed down, went home immediately to say goodbye to his wives and concubines, and prepared to lead his army to war.
The one who was most reluctant to part with him was his concubine Hongying, who had been with him the shortest time. Hongying's eyes were filled with tears as if she was reluctant to part with him forever.
Yang Ye said kindly: I am a military general, and it is my duty to go to war. You don’t need to worry.
Hongying wiped her tears with a piece of silk and choked up, saying: The people of the Northern Han Kingdom defected to the Khitan, and they were not good people to begin with. My dear, you don't have to work so hard, you must make a profit.
Yang Ye was stunned after hearing this, but after a moment he remembered that Hongying had been killed by the Khitans, so this statement was understandable, and he did not think much about it.
A woman knows that colluding with the Liao Kingdom is not a noble cause. How could Yang Ye not understand this? Not only Yang Ye, but probably the ruler of the Northern Han Dynasty and most of the Han people have no good feelings towards the Liao Kingdom. However, how can the Northern Han Dynasty confront the central government without relying on the Liao Kingdom
We are not the same as the Liao Kingdom. This is a relationship between countries, and it cannot be explained in a few words. Yang Ye comforted him.
Hongying was in tears again and said gently: With your fame and ability, he will be valued no matter who you vote for.
Yang Ye snorted and didn't want to talk any more with a woman.
This woman said it lightly. You can choose any capable person like Zhao Kuangyin to surrender to the lord, who can gain important positions in the Northern Han Dynasty. The reason why Yang Ye could become a general of the Northern Han Dynasty was not only because he was good at fighting, but also because he followed the founding emperor of the Northern Han Dynasty at a young age.
From the perspective of justice, of course the Northern Han Kingdom would be criticized. No one would think that colluding with a foreign enemy country is in line with justice. After all, the Northern Han Kingdom is not the Liao Kingdom. Compared with justice, Yang Ye thinks that personal loyalty to the monarch is more important to the world. No matter which monarch it is, the first thing to look at is probably not whether a person understands justice, but whether his loyalty is reliable. Now that the Great Zhou is strong, if Yang Ye immediately abandons the dark and joins the light, he thinks it is not a good thing.
Before the Northern Han army set out, Guo Shao had already learned that the main general that would lead the battle was Yang Ye.
He handed the paper in his hand back to Jingniang for safekeeping, looked back at the generals and ministers around him and said: As soon as we enter the border of Northern Han, there will be a war, and the first person we will fight is against Yang Ye.
Wang Pu immediately said: This person has a great reputation and is known as Yang Invincible.
Li Chuyun smiled and said: A few years ago, the Northern Han Kingdom had a famous general named Zhang Yuanhui, who was shot dead by the emperor. Today, Yang Wudi has come again, just in time to offer sacrifices to the Zhou army.
Guo Shao did not comment, but in his heart he paid extra attention to this Yang Ye because although Yang Ye of the Yang Family Generals at this time was quite famous and was known to be invincible, it was only because he was good at fighting. In this war-torn world, there were many generals who were good at fighting, and the current Yang Ye might not be as famous as in later generations.
The image of Yang Ye in Guo Shao's mind mainly comes from movies and TV shows, that is, the anti-Liao hero of the Song Dynasty. In any case, Guo Shao didn't want to kill Yang Ye at all. In his impression, even Song Taizong, who was so wary and afraid of warriors, could take Yang Ye, so why couldn't he
Continue to march northward with Shi Yanchao as the vanguard. Meet Yang Ye and fight Guo Shaodao head-on.
He looked up and saw that the troops and horses in the valley were marching along the winding valley road like a dark mountain torrent.
At this time, Zhang Guanghan's troops, who were originally stationed in Liaozhou, had joined Guo Shao's main force, with a total force of more than 50,000, and were now marching near the border of Northern Han. The surrounding area was full of low loess mountains with endless gullies and ravines, and the general direction was hundreds of miles south of Jinyang; it was probably located between Taiyue Mountain and the eastern section of Taihang Mountain, and should belong to the remnant of Taiyue Mountain. This mountainous area was continuous, but it was not as steep and rugged in comparison.
The road was not easy to travel, and the best way was the road along the Fen River to the west of Mount Taiyue. But Guo Shao's elite troops chose the Qinlu Plateau in advance because the road was closer and they wanted to advance to Jinyang as soon as possible. The road the army took was along a dry river valley. It was the route that the late emperor took to attack Jinyang after winning the battle of Gaoping. Guo Shao had walked through it once, so he knew that the water source on this road was also reliable. If there was no water source on the road for a team of tens of thousands of people, it would be a real problem.
The dull clatter of horses' hooves and footsteps filled the air, the team was crawling slowly, Guo Shao rode on horseback, occasionally talking to people around him. On this road, riding a carriage was really not as relaxing as riding a horse.
The natural conditions in the mountains are not as good as those in the Central Plains. The wind carries sand and it is very dry. The scenery is nothing but gullies and valleys. The vegetation seems to be declining. In February, there are still large areas of bare loess on the mountain, with only sparse shrubs and wormwood. Sometimes you can see flowering trees on the side of the mountain, which gives you a slight sense of spring. Often at this time, the soldiers would turn around and look.
There was no resistance along the way, and the scene was like this for several days. Until one day when they reached a large lake, Guo Shao recalled that he knew the mountainous area had come to an end.
In the afternoon, after Guo Shao crossed the lake along the road along the lakeside, the road ahead suddenly opened up.
However, the terrain was still not a plain. The east side was still a hillside with gullies, while the front and west sides were relatively flat land. Those lands were dry and rarely planted with crops. From a distance, Guo Shao was reminded of something like a thousand-layer cake, because the land looked like layers of uneven heights. He had to go further north to reach the plain area in the south of Jinyang.
The Northern Han army is on the defensive. After Yang Ye leaves Jinyang, he should be waiting for the enemy to tire themselves out at a relatively close location, so he may not be far away.
Guo Shao asked the generals of the scout camp for information, but still did not find a large number of Northern Han troops. That night, he sent someone to the front to pass on his order, instructing the officials who wrote military orders in the military office: Tell Shi Yanchao to send more cavalry in front to find out the location of the Northern Han army first, and then do not advance rashly. Our army has come from afar, and the soldiers and horses are exhausted. We should first choose a place to stay and rest, waiting for the follow-up army to follow up.
Guo Shao figured it out and found that Shi Yanchao was quite obedient and followed military orders on the battlefield, but he was not a patient person; moreover, this guy was even harder to control than Lin Renzhao. Lin Renzhao at least listened to Liu Renzhan, but Shi Yanchao listened to no one and only the emperor could use him.
Fearing that he would underestimate the enemy and advance rashly, and be demoralized by Yang Ye first, Guo Shao was not reassured, so he ordered Dong Zunhui to lead the cavalry and mounted infantry of the Third Army to deploy behind Shi Yanchao's right wing, and Zhang Guanghan to lead the cavalry of the Longjie Army of two armies to the left wing.